Integrated semiconductor circuit devices, oftentimes referred to as chips, contain a variety of miniaturized electrical circuitry and are widely used on printed wiring circuit boards manufactured by the Electronics and Communications Industry to form larger composite electrical circuits. A typical chip is a relatively small and fragile device commonly mounted on a ceramic substrate called a chip carrier. Electrical conducting leads generally extend outwardly from electrical circuitry of the chip and are coupled to a plurality of metallic conducting pads positioned on the chip carrier immediately adjacent each edge thereof. The chip or the combination of the chip and the chip carrier may be hermetically sealed to form an integrated circuit chip carrier module wherein electrical connections extend from the conducting pads, hereinafter referred to as terminals, adjacent the edges of the module to the electrical circuitry of the chip.
Connector apparatus has been developed for use in mounting integrated circuit chip carrier modules on printed wiring circuit boards and interconnecting each of the module terminals with a portion of the board circuitry. Typically, the connector apparatus comprises an insulating base member in which are mounted electrical conducting members designed to press against the terminals of a module mounted on the base member and establish electrical connections between the module terminals and the printed wiring board circuitry.
In the past, such connector apparatus has generally included a one piece insulating base member having pockets or cavities located around the perimeter to hold electrical conducting members. Each electrical conducting member having a tail portion and a spring portion intended to engage a module terminal is inserted into a cavity such that the tail portion engages the base member to hold the electrical conducting member in place. The tail portion extends beneath the base member into a hole drilled through the printed wiring or circuit board so that the tail portion may be soldered to the circuitry of the circuit board.
A problem occurs in using this type of connector apparatus with multilayer circuit boards in that holes drilled in these types of boards may interfere with or damage various layers of circuitry. Other types of connector apparatus have been developed for use with circuit boards wherein the electrical conducting members each have a spring contact portion which may be soldered or forced into engagement with circuitry of the circuit board. These latter types of connector apparatus often are a problem in that the base member must be modified in a number of different ways to accommodate the electrical conducting members. For example, a base member may be required to be bolted to a circuit board to maintain the electrical conducting members in contact with the circuit board or may be modified by expensive and complicated techniques to locate the electrical conducting members within the base member so that they may be aligned with circuitry of the circuit board.
Accordingly, a need exists for easily manufactured apparatus for mounting multi-terminal integrated circuit modules on circuit boards. A need also exists for easily assembled connector apparatus having a plurality of aligned electrical conducting members for use in mounting a multi-terminal integrated circuit module on a circuit board and interconnecting the module terminals with printed wiring circuitry of the circuit board.